SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

Overview of 4 Phases of Aviation SMS Implementation

How Long Does Aviation SMS Implementation Take?

Creating the 4 Phases of aviation SMS implementation is one of the great contributions that ICAO has made to the quality development of safety management systems. The 4 Phases of implementation provide a framework and road map service providers can follow to build a high-functioning safety program.

A basic description of each of the Phases of SMS implementation are:

Phase 1, which involves getting a high-level view of the current state of safety in the organization;

Phase 2, which involves defining, clarifying, and documenting many of the elements in Phase 1;

Phase 3, which involves establishing resources for many functionalities in the SMS program; and

Phase 4, which involves carrying out the use of many resources in Phase 3.

Following this framework keeps SMS implementation manageable. Without a structured plan, such as this, implementation of the SMS is:

Scary;

Hard to manage; and

Easily sidetracked or stalled.

Here is an overview of each of the 4 Phases of SMS implementation.

SMS Implementation Phase 1 – Get Grounded

SMS Implementation Phase 1 high revolves around simply getting grounded in the current state of the SMS program and other safety elements. The six primary activities (recommended by ICAO) are used to answer the questions:

How are we currently managing safety?

How do we ultimately want to manage safety?

How are we going to get there?

Phase 1 of aviation SMS implementation establishes a large-scale answer of these questions with the following requirements for completing Phase 1:

Identify accountable executive and other important stakeholders;

Establish the implementation team (i.e., roles in company and individual people);

Provide resources for safety oversight, such as aviation safety management system software; and

Provide training resources.

Phase 2 generally should take about 12 months, like Phase 1. Often times, Phase 2 and Phase 1 may be completed in conjunction as they are closely related in several of their elements.

SMS Implementation Phase 3 – Provide Resources

Phase 3 of SMS implementation is considered the first major “hump,” or “road-block” of all the phases. It marks the transition point from:

Accounting for and documenting safety elements; to

Providing resources that actually influence safety elements.

Unfortunately, Phase 3 is also where many programs run into “box-checking.” This is basically accounting for a level of implementation on paper that does not actually exist in the operational environment.

Why does this happen in Phase 3? Because as said, Phase 3 requires the dispensing of resources – a dispensing which many SMS programs may not have the resources or energy to actually do. The elements of Phase 3 are:

Promote and distribute safety information, and exchange it with other service providers;

Inspect and audit SMS based on analysis of safety data; and

Create process for internal review of the SMS program, and follow through with it.

To put it simply, much of Phase 4 simply involves following through with resources provided in Phase 3. Implementing full use of these resources will be time consuming, though less energy intensive than Phase 3.

For more information about SMS implementation, these resources should prove very useful: